1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a shutter mechanism in general, and in particular to an electronic device having a shutter mechanism capable of visually exposing or hiding the electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
Some notebook personal computers, tablet computers and smartphones use a liquid crystal display (LCD) as a flat display panel. Conventionally, there has been provided an edge frame formed of resin to hide a gap between the LCD and the inside of the housing around the periphery of the LCD. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing usage of so-called flat design in which a flat glass covers the whole surface including a display screen and a part corresponding to an edge frame around the periphery thereof (edge frame area).
As an example, for a tablet PC having a flat design LCD, printing is done in black ink in the edge frame area of the glass substrate. This type of tablet PC has a tendency to be preferred to have a totally-black edge frame in design. Therefore, if priority is given to a sense of unity in the color of the mainly-black edge frame, it has been difficult to provide a device that functions by being visually exposed in the edge frame.
In some cases, a camera module is disposed behind the edge frame even in a LCD having a full-flat design. In those cases, it is necessary to form an aperture having a transmittance increased by partially removing ink on the edge frame from the glass substrate in order to take light into a lens of the camera module. As a result, the lens behind the aperture looks whitish from the outside, which impairs the sense of unity in color with the edge frame.
Moreover, if an aperture is open though the camera module is not active, a user may feel uneasy, wondering whether the camera module is active to perform unintended photographing, in some cases. It is conceivable to use a method of providing a black mechanical shutter on the aperture in order to close the aperture when the user does not use the camera module and to project a sense of unity in color between the aperture and the edge frame. The problem with the above-mentioned method is that it is difficult to maintain the reliability in case of electrically controlling the opening-closing operation of the mechanical shutter, there is a limitation in space, and the mechanical shutter causes a cost increase.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide a reliable shutter mechanism for electronic devices.